Is It Music? the Dispute About John Cage’s 4’33”
Dylan Shadoan
Professor Morris
English 1113
8 November 2012
Is it music?
The Dispute about John Cage’s 4’33” When someone thinks about music, he or she is most likely to think of musical instruments, broadcasted radio, albums, musical artists, or record companies. These are all associated with music, yes, but do they actually define what music is? Within the realm of music, there are many different common interpretations of what music is, but there are few people who find time to sit and think about what music is and where it can be found. John Cage was one of those people. He was a philosopher of music as well as a very interesting experimental composer. His most controversial composition was composed in 1952 and was titled 4’33”. It consisted of three separate movements. Throughout the three movements, the performer is to “tacet”—or play nothing—for a total duration of four minutes and thirty-three seconds. That’s it. It seems like a joke, doesn’t it? But Cage was very serious about this composition because he believed that music is everywhere and that it exists even in the quietest of silences; thus, while the performer is not playing, the audience still hears many things, from the air circulating in the room and other audience members’ breathing and murmuring to the cars outside on the road. Cage wrote this in his most famous book, Silence, in regards to this notion that there is never complete silence:
For certain engineering purposes, it is desirable to have as silent a situation as possible. Such a room is called an anechoic chamber . . . I entered one at Harvard University several years ago and heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation. Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. (8)
Those two sounds heard by Cage in the anechoic chamber, among other sounds, are
Professor Morris
English 1113
8 November 2012
Is it music?
The Dispute about John Cage’s 4’33” When someone thinks about music, he or she is most likely to think of musical instruments, broadcasted radio, albums, musical artists, or record companies. These are all associated with music, yes, but do they actually define what music is? Within the realm of music, there are many different common interpretations of what music is, but there are few people who find time to sit and think about what music is and where it can be found. John Cage was one of those people. He was a philosopher of music as well as a very interesting experimental composer. His most controversial composition was composed in 1952 and was titled 4’33”. It consisted of three separate movements. Throughout the three movements, the performer is to “tacet”—or play nothing—for a total duration of four minutes and thirty-three seconds. That’s it. It seems like a joke, doesn’t it? But Cage was very serious about this composition because he believed that music is everywhere and that it exists even in the quietest of silences; thus, while the performer is not playing, the audience still hears many things, from the air circulating in the room and other audience members’ breathing and murmuring to the cars outside on the road. Cage wrote this in his most famous book, Silence, in regards to this notion that there is never complete silence:
For certain engineering purposes, it is desirable to have as silent a situation as possible. Such a room is called an anechoic chamber . . . I entered one at Harvard University several years ago and heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation. Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. (8)
Those two sounds heard by Cage in the anechoic chamber, among other sounds, are
Cited: Cage, John. 4’33. New York: Edition Peters, 1952. Print. ---. Silence. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 1961. Print. McNerney, Sam. “Why You’ll Pay for Silence.” Why We Reason. 2011. 6 Nov. 2012. Solomon, Larry. “The Sounds of Silence : John Cage and 4’33.” Solomon Counter. 1998. Web. 6 Nov. 2012. “The String Theory Simplified.” Squidoo. 2012. 7 Nov. 2012.